Rivet practice and top skin prep: 5.2 hours

Britt and I had a practice session using the long offset back rivet set and the 3lb bucking bar we will use on the top skins of the wing. I made some practice pieces to rivet together and it went well. Britt is on the exterior side with the bucking bar and I'm using the rivet gun on the inside of the wing.

The rest of the time I spent match drilling the flap brace and aileron gap seal. Then I did all the prep work (edge finish, deburr, dimple, scuff, clean and prime) on the left outboard top skin.

Now we are almost ready to rivet the top skins.

 

Dimpling outboard skin (nice day to work inside - rain).

 

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Inboard top skin prep: 4.2 hours

I was able to get the top inboard skin and the wing for the left wing all ready to rivet. This included: deburring all the rivet holes, finishing the edges, making a cutout where the inboard and outboard skins overlap, cleaning everything and priming.

Next the outboard top skin will get the same treatment. Then I will be able to rivet the rest of the leading edge. Then Britt and I can start riveting the top skins on!

 

Prepping the inboard top skin:

 

 

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Riveted leading edge to spar: 5.5 hours

I got the leading edge nose ribs riveted to the main spar and then riveted the top skin of the leading edge to the main spar. It's fun to see the bigger pieces being permanently attached. Once I prep the top skins I will put them in place, remove the bottom skins and rivet the bottom of the leading edge unit to the main spar.

I also spent some time working on the flap brace and prepping the wing walk doubler.

 

Left leading edge in progress:

 

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Riveted ribs to rear spar: 3.8 hours

Riveted all the ribs for the left wing to the rear spar using the squeezer and longeron yoke. Definitely easier than using the rivet gun.

 

No more clecos here!

 

I did have a little help:

 

 

 

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Riveted ribs to main spar: 8.2 hours

While reassembling the wing skeleton I noticed that I had gouged 3 rivet heads in the rear spar while match drilling the skins. So I had to spend over an hour removing the gouged rivets and reinstalling them. The process of taking those rivets out gives me a lot of confidence in their strength. These were some of the long 1/8" rivets and they were very difficult to remove.

After that I re-reassembled the wing skeleton and riveted all the aft ribs to the main spar.

 

It looks better without all the clecos!

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Finished wing skeleton prep: 5.5 hours

Finished the wing spar counter sinks.

Cleaned and primed all the ribs. Now ready to rivet.

 

I knew that big kitchen sink would come in handy:

 

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More left wing structure prep: 6 hours

Removed the ribs from the spar, deburred and dimpled them. Then I started countersinking the main spar for the skin rivets. There are a huge number of countersinks on the spar. I haven't counted the but I read there are about 300 per wing.

I was able to do a little more than half of the spar countersinks.

Britt also helped me by deburring the inside of the spar for the skin rivets.

 

Starting the skin rivet countersinks:

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